


The Uses of Time

by orphan_account



Series: Uses [4]
Category: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Genre: Christmas Party, Coming Out, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-25
Updated: 2013-02-25
Packaged: 2017-12-03 13:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/698874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard would have been content to live through the rest of their lives in secrecy, having long ago made a kind of peace with the nature of their relationship and how others viewed it. Peter was yet the braver of the two of them in this matter--and so they go to the annual Christmas Party at the Circus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Uses of Time

**Author's Note:**

> Written for QueenClo1, or at least--more honestly--finished and given a bit of polish on her account. Song referenced in the story is Life During Wartime by Talking Heads, which until I read the lyrics recently I'd always thought of as a spy's sort of song.
> 
> I also, recently, couldn't shake the notion of Richard drawing Peter close to swing dance to songs like it, so here we have this.
> 
> ~Sil

They didn’t speak of it.

Sometimes the phone would ring at an awfully late or early hour—or worse when they were playing—and one of them would answer the phone. Peter said that he’d quietly made it known to his department that he was queer, since his promotion. His people knew that a man not himself might answer the phone sometimes in emergencies. _If he doesn’t ask about Aunt Nancy don’t speak to him though_ , _hang up and get in touch with Control immediately_.

It was another few years before Peter took him to the yearly Christmas party. Apparently George had bullied him, which Richard didn’t quite like but dealt with. George Smiley was almost like an ex-boyfriend of Peter’s that Richard had to be jealous and wary of all at once. He knew it was irrational, but the fact remained that there was part of Peter which belonged to neither Peter nor Richard.

It was 1979, and among the whimsical songs about spies was a newer song—one that Richard occasionally played on Saturdays while he was folding their laundry, ever since it had come out. The house—an actual honest to God _house_ —would be filled with the sound. _Heard of a van, loaded with weapons_ —and when Peter would get home— _packed up and ready to go—_ after they had dinner and before Richard started in on his grading— _heard of some grave sites, out by the highway_ —they would put the album on and dance together for a while— _a place where nobody knows_.

The song appealed to Richard, seeing it a bit as the way Peter lived and saw the world.

There were some cheers as the song roared into life—apparently the spies surrounding him felt the same way—and then Peter was standing right in front of him, with his hands outstretched. Richard made no moves to take his boyfriend’s hands, unsure of what Peter might want revealed to his coworkers.

“Richard—I need this. I need to dance with you,” he said, and then with the barest of twitches flicked his fingers just a bit, “please.” So Richard reached up and took Peter’s hands. The smile on the other man’s face lit up the room, and though there some raised eyebrows among the crowd no one actually flinched at the two of them and their slight display. A few people, obviously more familiar with Peter—men and women from his department perhaps—smiled hesitantly as they watched. His boyfriend on the other hand was golden and gloriously happy under the stark lighting of the room, and that was quite enough for Richard.

_We make a pretty good team_ …

 


End file.
